Problems with ballot printers that caused lines to back up at some Phoenix-area polling places last year were not caused by malicious actions but by changes to the paper, a retired Arizona Supreme Court justice concluded in a report released Monday.
County officials used longer ballots on thicker paper than had been used previously, changes that were made in part to respond to unfounded conspiracy theories but which pushed the printers to the edge of their capabilities, former Justice Ruth McGregor wrote.
She added that preelection testing may not have caught the problem because the test didn’t properly mimic the stresses that printers experience on Election Day.
“Nothing we learned in our interviews or document reviews gave any clear indication that the problems should have been anticipated,” McGregor wrote.
McGregor’s findings show the challenges confronting election officials as they respond to concerns spread by election deniers with changes that carry their own unforeseen consequences that raise further doubts among voters primed to be skeptical of election procedures.
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